Motivation for Reading English as a Foreign Language: A Psychometric Measurement Study with Iranian High School Students in Grades ۱۱ and ۱۲

Abstract Reading comprehension is the main second language (L۲) skill taught and practiced in secondary schools in Iran. However, it is not clear to what extent Iranian students are motivated to read L۲ English because little research has been conducted in this area, particularly due to the unavailability of valid instruments to assess Iranian students’ reading motivation in the L۲. To address this measurement gap, ۲۲۹ secondary students in Grades ۱۱ and ۱۲ completed a Persian-translated version of the Reading Motivation Questionnaire in English as a Foreign Language (RMQ-EFL) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then run on the collected data. The CFA fit indices demonstrated that the originally proposed ۵-factor structure could also be verified with Iranian EFL students in high school; however, several items did not contribute enough to the overall variance of respondents' scores on the RMQ-EFL, and they were therefore removed from the final item pool. Measurement invariance analysis via multilevel CFA indicated that the questionnaire measured a parallel construct between Grade ۱۱ and ۱۲ students and thus, it can be used for comparing the L۲ reading motivation of these groups by using the RMQ‐EFL. The implications of the study are discussed and recommendations for further research are presented.